"I have seen the smoke from the campfires of a thousand villages where the name of Christ has never been proclaimed."

I love that image. The great missionary Robert Moffat looked out across the velds of South Africa and his heart cried out for the unreached nations before him. The smoke rising up across the horizon was a constant reminder that the task was unfinished. With every flame came a spiraling cloud. A thousand tribes of men, women and children circling around the fires and from the distance he watched as those signal fires marked out the nations.

I have seen the smoke.

Moffat had followed the call of God into missions as a young man, spurred forward by the testimonies from Moravian missionaries, stories he heard sitting at his mother’s knee. His soul shook with an unquenchable passion to reach those nations and proclaim the name of Jesus.

I have seen the smoke.

Every time I read these words my soul leaps into action. I’m stirred to prayer and spurred to reach unreached villages. But Africa has changed so much in the last two centuries since Moffat first arrived in January of 1817. There are still villages and there are still fires. There are still spirals of smoke rising up across the African plains and desert dunes where the name of Jesus Christ has never been proclaimed.

You never know where a prayer walk is going to lead you in Asheville. Recently, we found ourselves in the River Arts District praying for the artists to have an encounter with the Creator. Next thing I know we are in a glass blower’s shop/gallery, and I am the one having an encounter with the Creator. As I watched the artist handling this delicate piece he was creating, God just began speaking to me. To begin with, the glass blower was continually moving the glass, spinning it round and round. It never sat still. This ensured that the piece stayed true to it’s original design as the glass blower was molding it and shaping it. Staying stagnant would cause it to come out of center. God works with us that way, continually speaking, continually using situations and circumstances to mold us. He never puts us down to take a break. He never lets go of us, He never sleeps nor slumbers. We can rest assured that the Creator is forever molding us into His image.

Secondly, to add depth and interest, the glass blower would add layer upon different colored layer to his piece. He wanted interest. We are made in God’s image, and He has so many layers, we will never find the end of them. And they are all exciting! To think, I am created in that same image. He has wrapped my being in so many interesting facets, I love discovering who I am with Him! At one point, the glass blower torched a long, sharp pin, and poked two holes through the outer shell of the piece into it’s core. There are times in the molding process where it hurts, and we don’t understand, and it’s so very painful, but God allows it anyway. Why would He do that??? Why would He let the metaphorical torched hot pin pierce us to our core? This is where God really spoke to me, and he said, “For two reasons. One, if it’s cold, done without love from the Creator, it will break you. You wouldn’t survive. So, yes, the heat is intense, but hold on, beauty is on it’s way. Secondly, once you are pierced, I then blow my breath into your center, and you expand, and those tiny piercings expand, and the beauty of all the layers I have created and fashioned shine through and you are able to be transparent. But it never will happen unless you allow me to prick you.” Life lesson learned. There was so much to ponder that day as I watched the glass blower. I’m sure there will be multiple trips back, asking God to reveal more of his ways.How have you met the Creator today?